Thursday, August 2, 2018

Walt's Busy Day

I actually slept pretty well last night. I dozed off early and did my usual seep-wake cycle all night and woke up finally at 3:30 or so, but that was after several hours of sleep and I felt good. I got up at 4 and wrote Funny the World and then snuck back to the recliner, where I went to sleep for another couple of hours. I was vaguely aware of Walt making coffee, but he was not around when I finally woke up.

When he finally appeared, he seemed uneasy and finally admitted that he had a full bladder, but was unable to urinate. He was starting to be in great pain.

I told him to call the Kaiser advice nurse, who advised him to go to the emergency room.

Now the problem is that the emergency room is in Vacaville, about 20 miles away....and I can't drive. He himself could barelysit, let alone drive. I knew Ned was busy helping a friend today, but I called him and he did not answer. I left a text message.

What to do?

I decided to take a chance on our friend Jessica, who works with old people and who has offered many times to help us if we ever needed her. Bless her she said "I'll be there in 7 minutes" ... and she was.

I told her she could just drop him off and that I was sure Ned would be able to pick him up later, but she stayed with him until 1:30 and was able to fire off a text storm letting me know what was going on at each step of the process. I don't think I've exchanged so many texts since i got my cell phone!

Best for Walt was that they catheterized him and removed roughly 3-1/2 cups of urine. They left the catheter in place and will remove it tomorrow, when he returns (Ned will drive him then).

He meets with a surgeon tomorrow. He was diagnosed with a hernia in 2010 but it was not causing problems and the doctor felt he could let it go for awhile. Apparently the ER doc guesstimates that the hernia was blocking his urine flow and it may finally be time to repair the hernia.

Things do not move quickly in the ER and Jessica finally had to leave, but Marta drove down from Sacramento and relieved her. It was she who brought Walt home. Marta is now officially a manager and so she managed his return very efficiently! He has sheaves of paper, bottles of pills, bags for his catheter, and other stuff. He retired upstairs and I suspect took a much needed nap.

Polly, as always, by his side

In the meantime, Atria called and said that my mother had scratched the skin next to her eye and got blood on her pillow and that she would need a new pillow. When I asked why they couldn't just wash the blood out, I was told that they are not permitted to wash anything with blood on it.

Obviously there was no way we were going to be able to get a pillow for a few days. I certainly can't drive one over and Walt can't now either, but the manager of Memory Care offered to go and buy a pillow and just bill her. I said that would be fine.

As for ME, I'm feeling better tonight, but the knee I twisted when I fell awhile ago flared up and I could barely stand on it. But keeping it elevated and rested all day, as well as a cold compress on it, seems to have helped somewhat.